Pranking the Prankster
by Arual-san
Summary: What happens when Zuko gets fed up with Sokka calling him his despised nickname? Oneshot taking place after Return to the Swamp.


Had this idea for a while and it wouldn't leave me alone. Hope it cracks you up as much as it did me. Please read and review! I'll love you so much if you do!

Arual-san

* * *

"Six turtle-ducks went out to play," sang Ty Lee in an upbeat tune, swaying side to side in rhythm, "over the hill and far a - way,"

As she washed a set of slacks, Suki joined in, "The mommy duck said..."

"_Kak! Kak! Kak! Kak!_" Keiko screamed in excitement as Ty Lee, Suki and Katara all made duck hand-puppets for those six ducks.

"And six little ducks came waddling back," Katara ended, putting up a short-lived truce with the enemy if only to keep the baby entertained. Easily could a child as young as Keiko pitch a tantrum out of boredom while those three girls plus Mai worked on laundry in a pond near the Western Air Temple. As they started up the next verse Mai remained as vacant as the boulders that surrounded them like she was tuning it all out.

Where they worked nearby gathering firewood and tying nets, neither Sokka nor Zuko had the peace of mind to do the same.

"Five turtle-ducks went out to play…"

Zuko's eyes and lips had long since thinned into straight lines of annoyance not because of how Keiko eagerly waited for the next verse as if it would be a surprise but for the girls' loud off key way they were singing it…and their overkill of quaking sound effects.

He viciously knotted another rung in the net. What number had they started at, twenty, fifty? Would they start over when they reached zero or do negatives? At least Sokka could get away in intervals to chop some wood with his machete.

No sooner had he thought of Sokka than the Water Tribe boy appeared with a stack of sticks in his skinny arms. Once he'd come within distance he grumbled about the song still not having reached its end.

"What, that's it?" Zuko scoffed at the meager load the other boy carried.

"We're in a big, long canyon," Sokka came back. "Not a jungle, not a forest, a _canyon_. There's rocks and dust and that's pretty much it so unless you know how to magically start a fire with either of those things oh mighty firebender-"

"It's _not_ magic, Sokka! How many times do I have to-!?" Zuko scowled it off, not bothering to finish. "Some of those are saplings too, they won't burn well. Chit Sang and I alone can't be fueling the fire for everyone plus all the new airbenders all week."

"Despite that the Sun Warriors have been fueling the same fire for thousands of-"

"Enough!" Zuko growled. "I didn't mean I _couldn't_, I just have other stuff to direct my energy toward."

"Sure, sure, well one of them should be paying attention to your knotting." Sokka held up the net in proof of his claim before Zuko could scoff. "The corners are pulling in instead of being even all around. Are you trying to make a kite? Start over."

"I've been working on this thing for an hour!"

"And you've got plenty more hours ahead of you," Sokka said pitilessly. "I've been tying nets all my life. I'm the expert here and the _expert_ orders you to start over. I don't care if it wrecks your princely little manicure either, get cracking Zuzu!"

"Stop me calling that!" Zuko yelled back, growing red in the face. Lately Sokka had been using that baby name more than his real one and despite how he'd learned to control his anger it was quickly getting on his last nerve.

"But it suits you," Sokka teased, positively looking for a fight, "so says both of your sisters."

"Keiko's a baby and she's still learning words. It's _not_ okay for _anyone_ else."

"Oh please," Sokka said and he crossed his arms in a look most smug. "The kid knows how to say her name. She can say 'ko' and she says 'zu' twice so surely she can put them together. She just doesn't want to." That smug look of Sokka's increased so that it was almost criminal. "You _like_ her calling you that, don't you?"

Zuko ground his teeth. "Sokka, I'm _going_ to kill you."

"You've gone soft as mochi-cake since you've teamed up with us."

"Just you wait," he said between gritted teeth. "When you're sleeping…I'll make it look like an accident and you'll see how "soft" I am." As he was unknotting the net the tip of his finger got pinched. "_Oww, stupid _– why do I have to make this thing anyway? The airbenders are vegetarians!"

"Because the expert orders it so. Net-making is essential to life."

"In the South Pole, not _here_," Zuko growled back.

"Okay fine," Sokka consented on some level, "fish for me and the other meat-eaters and…uh…_seaweed_ for the grass-grazers…or something. Far be it from me to know what those people eat. Less talking more knotting, Zuzu."

"_Sokka_…"

Far from apologizing, Sokka decided it was a good time for a break right there and then. He fell back right on the spot to get comfortable. Throughout their griping with each other they'd been distracted enough to not hear that the song had come to an end and the truce came tumbling down just as soon as the last verse was uttered. Katara and Suki turned one way to continue cleaning, Ty Lee the other.

Time passed where the girls cleaned and hung clothes up to dry, Zuko knotted and knotted and tried to keep the net uniform with untrained hands, and Sokka lazed about issuing commands to the former to build a better net. Sokka was just being bossy for the sake of being bossy, not even opening his eyes in his critiques, but he was jolted from his half-sleep by a large amount of drool over his machete hand.

"Slug beast! It's got my arm, it's-!"

"It's just Keiko."

Sokka pulled a face when he was fully awake and took stock. "Like it's any less gross." He tried to free his machete from Keiko's gummy mouth without setting her off crying. "Bad baby, you don't steal other peoples' stuff…especially _sharp_ stuff."

Too focused on freeing his hand and weapon he only just noticed an oncoming projectile coming toward his head.

He caught the baby food jar.

"She's hungry," said Zuko simply. "Feed her."

"_You_ feed her. She's _your_ sister."

"But _I_ need to tie the net," Zuko replied in an exaggerated and sarcastic tone as if nothing else in the world was more important. "Tying the net is _soooo_ important and it'll disrupt my concentration if I leave. Isn't that what you said?"

For a moment Sokka looked as if he wanted to find a way around that one and get back to napping. Keiko had latched onto him already even to gnaw on fake food and it would take some effort to ease her onto someone else.

He rolled his eyes. "_Fine_."

Sokka fiddled with the lid. Once he'd gotten it free he yanked the machete out from under Keiko with a loud pop and plugged up her mouth with a spoon before she could even begin to complain. Liking the taste, she opened her mouth open wide with an expectant air.

"All right, all done," Sokka said when the container was empty and he threw it over a shoulder. "Go on now, scoot." He assumed that would be the end of it. The baby was fed, the baby was happy and he could get back to his nap.

"Bozo!"

Sokka's eyes flashed open to the baby who had spoken. She pointed at him and said it again, presumably in thanks. His mood quickly flashed from confusion to insult that Keiko was indeed addressing him and no one else. It could only mean…

"_Zuko!_"

Right there next to them, Zuko had heard the same as plain as day but still he feigned ignorance as he knotted the net. "Yes?"

"What's the meaning of this!?" Sokka demanded, thrusting out the baby to him as Keiko continued to prattle on the same word over and over.

"I have no idea." If Zuko hoped that saying that from an angle so that Sokka couldn't see the guilty look on his face his plan failed horribly. Everything gave him away: his barely contained mocking tone, his guilty posture. He hadn't the skill to convince even a five-year-old otherwise when he was lying.

"_You_ did this! I _know_ it was you!" Sokka was the only one completely uninterested in ever taking up baby duties so while the others all got baby names from Keiko Sokka was without one…leaving someone else to fill in the blank.

"_Hah!_" Zuko barked in well deserved payback, dropping all pretenses. "Who's got the worse baby name _now!?_ What's his name again, Kei?"

"Bozo!" she answered, happy to please, pointing at Sokka with both hands now, delighting her brother when Sokka started to bristle. Like a kettle on boil, Sokka had had enough right then and there and as Zuko was starting up in one of his rare fits of laughter Sokka tackled him straight in the gut, knocking both the air out of him and his next mocking laugh.

Nearby the four girls worked on their separate sides, never once mingling with the former enemy, there was too much bad blood and no sensible Toph around to break it up. Only the sudden noise of the fight breaking out behind them made Mai and Ty Lee shift round to the other side to see what was going on.

"What are those idiots doing?" Mai posed dryly though she knew full well a fist fight when she saw one.

"Make her take it back!" Sokka screeched, his voice cracking as he threw a punch which Zuko easily evaded.

"Can't!" answered Zuko with uncontained bliss. "It's set in stone!"

Both Katara and Mai's reactions were set in similar looks of distaste that boys didn't mature nearly as fast as girls, that they always had to prove which of them was braver, stronger and smartest but Suki wasn't so uptight and she cheered for her man.

"_Go Sokka!_" Ty Lee echoed much louder, drowning out Suki's previous claim. "_Zuko's got a weak right hook! One hit K.O., wooooo!_"

"_Whaaaat!?_" Zuko yelped out in absolute shock and his moment of inattention earned him a slug in the cheek. He glared up at Ty Lee who returned the look with her usual delirious cheer. "You traitor!"

"Sorry, Zuko!" Ty Lee replied cheerily with no shame. "You know I still love you!"

Not done intentionally that way, the fight between the boys separated the four girls: Ty Lee and Suki facing the way of the fight as they cleaned, too focused on the fight to care about the close vicinity of the other, and Katara and Mai silently washing on the away side. Katara for her part made a point of turning away from the girl at her shoulder while Mai glared and scrubbed away at the most stubborn stains.

Either girl expected the other to hold her tongue until every last piece was cleaned.

As she sorted another sock Mai sighed that she had to be the one to do it when none of the other three were ever going to stand up instead.

"When your emotions aren't overriding the rest of you," she started, earning a glare from the Water Tribe girl, "…you seem like a very reasonable person, Katara."

"And is that a compliment or an insult, _Mai?_" Katara replied curtly. She whipped a clean cloth into the basket a tad too fiercely.

"Both," Mai replied back, staying calm to say what needed to be said. "You understand why Ty Lee and I have decided to join your forces, don't you? My loyalty to Zuko is unbreakable and I can say the same of Ty Lee."

"That's nice," said Katara, her tone clearly suggesting the opposite.

Meanwhile in the background Zuko had had enough of playing around with Sokka and having Keiko as his one supporter. He started raining sparks of flame at Sokka's feet, making the poor boy yelp and awkwardly dance around to evade.

"We're loyal to Zuko and he is in turn loyal to you," Mai continued despite the negative feedback, despite the less than ideal fight taking place behind when the boys were supposed to be forming into friends. "The code of honor in our nation is held in the highest regard. We are on the same side now and would sooner die than tarnish our reputations."

"Then we can _trust_ you?"

"Yes," Mai answered point-blank, "yes, you can. I cannot stress enough that we need to break these barriers between us before we go into battle. It's a weakness that you can be certain Azula will take advantage of."

Katara wasn't won over. "Stick with Zuko and Ty Lee and we can just side-step this whole thing."

"I'm not asking you to be my friend," Mai said, making that clear, "but we will need to form a certain sense of comradory should worse come to worse. You can't be willing to sacrifice any of your allies for your overinflated sense of right and wrong. Even with the airbenders our numbers are low."

As tight as her prejudices were, Katara couldn't help but feel torn at Mai's logic.

Zuko advanced, palms alive with flame when he had Sokka on the run but once he saw that Sokka hadn't been retreating Zuko was soon running in the other direction away from Sokka's true but primitive plan: a heavy boulder held high above his head.

"Do you see where I'm coming from?" Mai felt she had to prod further when she had managed to chisel open Katara's closed mind to some degree. "You've been acting like a spoiled child. We're at war and we need a soldier."

Even with the extra added weight Sokka seemed to pick up speed enough to chase his prey when Zuko had started to run. He'd finally caught up with the other boy and he rolled back the huge boulder in his hands to let it fly.

Zuko braced himself…but for nothing.

Despite monumental effort from his skinny arms Sokka was only able to throw the huge boulder an inch before him, narrowly missing his own toes, coming nowhere near to hitting his intended target.

Sokka's lips pulled back into a nervous and embarrassed grin like he had meant to do that.

For a few moments Zuko just stared, processing how very pathetic that toss had been, but then he fired at Sokka's shoes a flame larger than the ones before, shifting the tables to again become the hunter. Sokka ran off again yelling, Ty Lee, Suki and Keiko echoing his cries with cheers.

"The Avatar was the one who sent us out with this chore of washing clothes when it's your assigned task." It was no coincidence. "He realizes the importance of my claims just the same as everyone else."

Katara remained silent in contemplation.

"To all the sweat and blood that our comrades, the Avatar especially, are pouring into making our next strike succeed, that we are contributing anything less than our full efforts is insulting." For the first time Mai looked away from their reflections in the water and Katara was met with Mai's steely, black eyes head-on. "I need to know whether or not you can treat me as a teammate."

Mai's hand drew out between her and Katara and it was reminiscent of the time only days previously when Katara had practically been forced to shake hands with Ty Lee for a dinner and rest sorely needed. There was no force present now, only something Mai needed clarified.

"Don't take it," said Mai, lowly, seriously, "if you don't mean it."

So involved in their conversation, Katara and Mai hardly noticed even when the heated battle behind them rose to its greatest intensity yet.

"Didn't want to do this, man," said Sokka as he stepped back with a wide stance. "Nah, I'm lying, I totally did. Eat this!" And with a mighty throw he sent a mini boomerang no longer than a hand which Zuko easily avoided.

"You did this on our _first_ fight," Zuko reminded, advancing on the other boy, moving his head aside when the boomerang came back.

Sokka responded with a criminal smile. "Did I? Well this time I have an _army!_ Fly babies fly!" He chose specific angles and let six more mini boomerangs fly and Zuko wasn't so confident anymore. His movements so coordinated before turned into awkward, seizure-like movements, squeaks of alarm when he almost got nailed by an incoming boomerang, grunts of pain when he got hit.

Sokka was so close, smiling and dodging with ease, and yet Zuko couldn't close any distance between.

"Ha, ha, ha! Having some trouble there? Well take some more!" Sokka threw in five more and it was a horizontal hailstorm of wooden rain. Zuko dodged, jumped and even had to bend over backward once and Sokka only watched in amusement.

"I can _save_ you," Sokka said maliciously, strings attached.

"Not a chance!" Zuko yelled back and right then he seized a second's break to set a wave of flames all around.

He had thought they would all drop like flies around him but he was very wrong. Zuko had only given Sokka's weapons additional firepower and with the force of his attack he'd messed up the specific trajectories Sokka had set up.

They were both now victims in the swirling chaos of fire.

"Why won't they burn out!?" Zuko demanded as he kept up his twisted dancing act.

"They're made out of animal bones!" Sokka yelled as one of his own creations stuck him in the arm.

The boys continued to raise a booming din of yells and complaints that it was a wonder why the whole temple didn't hear them. They tried to escape the mess they'd made but still tried to beat the other up when they got in range.

"This is _your_ fault!" Sokka shoved Zuko. "Your stupid element wrecks everything it touches!"

The boomerangs were coming in too fast for Zuko to recall the flame but he managed to put out one fire when it caught on his pant leg. "If you'd have just made boomerangs that ran out of momentum sooner-!"

"We're only stuck like this because you had to blast everything!"

"Yeah!?" Zuko used Sokka as a shield and pushed him into an oncoming mini-bang. "Well I blame you!"

Mai had waited all this time for Katara to take her hand, accept things. When it was clear that a great deal of turmoil and thoughts were storming behind the pair of blue eyes Mai returned her hand to a side but not in defeat. "The offer still stands, Katara…whenever you want it."

Katara could have ignored her completely but she gave a curt nod before she left, summoning up a great blob of water with her as she went down the incline. She spread it into a sheet and dumped it over Zuko and her brother, fixing the problem.

While Zuko lay on the ground, soaked and a little dazed, Sokka was more outspoken.

"Katara, that's _cold!_"

"If the _children_ are done playing now," Katara stared in a tone that was a far cry from sympathy but whatever she was going to say next was interrupted by the sudden and intense wailing of Keiko. "Oh, oh, sorry sweetie," she cooed in apology, pulling out the water from her and scooping her up. "Did I get you wet? Are you cold? I'm so sorry."

"I'm cold too!" Sokka complained, indignant at the favoritism.

"Suck it up, Sokka!" she ordered, whipping round. Without drying the boys out, Katara headed back along the path to the temple rocking Keiko and trying to calm her down. The other girls soon followed behind with their baskets.

Sokka watched them go, his arms crossed, head low and pouting. Despite their resistance to flame, resistance was all his mini-bangs possessed, not immunity. In his spare time he'd trained The Duke and some of the airbender kids and teens to forge and fly them but despite their efforts the boomerangs now bore burnt imperfections so he couldn't fly them again.

He stayed perfectly stationary as he watched them go but after a time his eyes slid in their sockets to where Zuko wrung the water from his sleeves.

"Take it back!" Sokka demanded, undeterred by the cold and the wet. He launched a surprise attack, tackling the other teen and slamming him into the ground.

* * *

It was no coincidence that the four girls kept ending up doing chores together. Whether Aang had been the one to start it or if it had been someone else the whole rest of the group seemed to be conspiring against them and forcing them that way.

Earlier it had been cleaning, now it was cooking.

The two vats of rice large enough for a grown man to take a bath in were being manned by Katara and Mai while Ty Lee and Suki worked on smaller, more complicated dishes, Suki's an excuse to celebrate either Sokka's victory or to cheer him up after a crushing defeat.

Suki had the suspicion that Ty Lee was doing the very same thing. On top of that Ty Lee's grandma's recipe seemed to call for at least 200 stirs to get it to the right consistency and stirring it so much made her very bored very fast.

"Hey, Keiko, want to play a game?" Ty Lee posed, dropping down to the baby's level. "It's _really_ fun, even _more_ fun than "Roll the Ball" or "Chew on the Dangerous Weapon"."

Brown, doe-eyes looked up in curiosity.

"You take this spoon and – no, no stop it! You don't put it in your mouth, stop it!" While Keiko had the bottom, Ty Lee took the top of the mixing spoon and guided it into the curry. "Oh, but I don't know, this game is only for _big_ girls."

Mai rolled her eyes and continued stirring as Keiko stomped her foot and put out an angry whine.

"Keiko big girl!"

"I don't know," Ty Lee said, playing it further all so that Keiko would be dying to take up the tedious task, "big girls don't cry when they get soaked with a little wah-wah."

"Oh Agni," Mai sighed like it was one of the worse things in existence, "not the baby babble."

But Ty Lee was far from any sort of disciplinarian and she couldn't hold out for long under that fussy, grumpy look that nevertheless compromised zero of the baby's cuteness. She let go of the spoon and guided Keiko through the action of walking around the pot again and again.

"No laws against child labor in the Fire Nation?" Suki posed. She had probably suffered the most out of all of them, having spent the most time in prison, yet inexplicably was the most willing to make things work between them.

Though cynical, her inquiry had a dash of teasing in it.

Going the low route, Ty Lee stuck out her tongue and the response was doubled when Keiko mimicked the same. With a break from her long efforts over a hot fire the circus performer rolled back and worked on her stretches out of habit.

She'd gotten most of the rice from sticking to the bottom so Katara too took a break from her pot to give Appa and Momo their dinner before the rest of them ate. When asked, Katara confirmed that she had the root Suki was out of and Suki left the area to fetch it.

Katara noticed that their firewood was getting low since Sokka had not returned with it yet. It had been a ridiculously long time that Sokka and Zuko had been away and it was starting to get dark. She heaved a sigh.

"Appa," she said and the great beast lifted his head from the hay, "could you go fetch our boys please?" She held out some things of Sokka and Zuko's so Appa could get a scent and understand.

Nothing was more important than filling his six stomachs. Appa finished all his food before he jumped off the ledge to find them.

Not long after Ty Lee gave a squeak of pain that she tried to stifle.

Katara was in the shadows of the pillars and far enough away to be overlooked by them. She saw Ty Lee's long braid yanked back harshly by Mai and wondered why until she noticed that Ty Lee had been over Suki's pot with an unknown packet of powder.

Sabotage.

Mai had just put a real effort into the teammate talk she had talked of before even when it was putting her closest friend at a disadvantage to winning Sokka for herself. It would've been all too easy to ruin Suki's hard work with no eyes to witness it.

Katara didn't know whether to be more grateful to Mai or bitter to Ty Lee after Suki's hard work but after contemplating either side from Mai's conversation that small act of good will swayed her to one side of the constantly changing scales.

As she walked back her each step that brought her closer was full of purpose. They were her enemies; they had been her enemies for so long…

"Rice _again!?_"

Toph's overly loud complaint when the only other sound had been the steady munching of Momo's small teeth had the effect of shocking Katara out of the sanctity of her purpose.

"Can't you at least branch out and get _brown_ rice or something? If there's one thing about home that I miss it's the food."

Katara heard herself respond, "If you want to sign up for food patrol be my-"

"Ooo, what are those other smells?" Toph beamed, right on to the next thing without letting Katara finish. When her scalp still stung and her best friend was fronting to her an angry silence, Ty Lee branched out hesitantly. Toph had been mostly agreeable to her former enemies.

"Would you…like to try a bite?" Ty Lee ventured. She needed someone to test it on anyway.

"Absolutely! Hit me!"

"Ooo, ooo, me too!" cried Aang, popping out from the same entrance Toph had come from and Ty Lee found two twelve-year-olds kneeling before her with wide and waiting smiles. She paused a moment with the thought of what powerhouses lay behind those deceiving, innocent smiles before returning the smile and obliging them each with an oversize spoon.

"Now go easy on me," Ty Lee said as they each chomped on their spoon, "I'm not exactly a cook and I had to improvise a few ingredients and-"

"Mmm, that's really good and-" Aang started but just at that second the full force of the peppers kicked in. "_Hot!_"

"Yowza," Toph seconded, opening her mouth to breathe as Aang tried fanning his tongue as he looked for something to drink. "You might want to tone it down a few notches before you give it to Sokka."

"Really?" Ty Lee was surprised. "But that's only a six out of ten spiciness in the Fire Nation." She headed for the fountain where Aang had dunked his head in to drink so she could fill up on water and water down the recipe when a great, fluffy form appeared with two forms in its mouth.

"Hi Appa," the girl greeted, going first to scratch the mighty beast's wide forehead. "The boys are back!"

Completely spent, Sokka and Zuko sagged on the ground where Appa dropped them as the others came to welcome them back. Rather than get up to the designed spot to sit down and eat they seemed just fine in staying where they'd been dropped.

Katara pinched her forehead as if suffering a migraine. "_Please_ don't tell me you spent that entire four hours trying to get the other to beg for mercy."

"Eh, heh, heh," Sokka murmured into the ground and it was all the answer she needed.

"So there's no firewood, no net?" Katara continued, knowing it so but calling them on it anyway.

"Thas right, sis!" Sokka cried out woozily, surging an arm up in self-praise. "An' it was worth it! I had Zuko eating mud at the end and he was all like 'Nooo, _stooop_, I'm so weak. All that tough guy stuff is a front 'cuz I'm just a whiny baby a scratch beneath the surface. You're so much better, Sokka, in smarts and strength and…" He struggled for the exact words. "And awesomeness!"

"None of that _happened_, Sokka," Zuko had to remind him through his heavy breathing.

"Sure it did, man," Sokka insisted, facing him with a dopey grin, "you're just a little woozy from when I hit you on the head."

"I hit _you_ on the head."

"You did?"

"_Yes!_" Zuko said back forcefully for the possibility that anyone would for a second believe Sokka's claims. "As if I'd lose to some peasant with a weird-shaped head!"

"_Hey!_ Suki said she liked its shape! She said it was unique!"

"Then she's an even bigger liar than you!"

"Oh yeah, bring it!" Sokka placed his arms back to the ground to heave himself up. He heaved and he strained but he fell straight back to the ground before he could get even half way back up. Zuko didn't even try when the effort was doomed to failure.

Most of the group started snickering.

"_You can't even stand!?_" Katara sputtered, never thinking that they'd be so dense as to not leave any energy left for the short walk back. "I can't _believe_ you two! Is it so important to prove which of you is tougher!? Oh, why am I even wasting my breath!? Come on, Sokka!"

She grabbed her brother by the scruff of his shirt to drag him into camp and she made no effort to smooth the ride as if she could drive some of the bullheadedness out of his head through pain. Mai was no gentler to Zuko.

The night before they'd had dinner in the banquet hall with the surviving airbenders but it seemed they'd all quietly come to a consensus that a quiet night under the stars was right for this night just a small group consisting of Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Mai, Ty Lee and Keiko. Former enemies now all under the same stone roof sharing rice instead of exchanging fists, boomerangs, daggers and wily elements.

Scoop after scoop, bowl after bowl, Katara passed rice around the circle. Where Sokka's tan face was long with exhaustion two steaming bowls were shoved under his nose.

"Try my Moo Shoo Pork, Sokka," Suki said with a sweet smile for her creation. "It's a specialty back in Kyoshi Island."

"Try my curry first!" Ty Lee pushed her dish with more force so that she almost dunked in his nose in it. "The recipe's been passed down in my family for generations!"

The smell of two very different but very luscious smells soon brought back that dopey smile of Sokka's as he tried to decide which of them to indulge first. A few spaces away Zuko strained to look anywhere that wasn't at Mai but a split-second's weakness was all it took for her to notice the very thing that was playing in his mind.

She shoved the bowl into his hands. "Eat your rice, Zuko."

He gave a defeated sigh and picked up his chopsticks. "Yes, Mai."

When no one else stepped up right away Aang went on about the training session he'd recently gotten out of with Toph, how if he'd only zigged instead of zagged, dodged that boulder a second earlier and finally come in with his own finishing move instead of trying to block Toph's how he might've possibly gotten a little closer to maybe beating her one day. Just once.

"Always dreaming, that one," Toph commented, amused that her pupil had thought he'd come so far. "You guys must've been up to something today. What's the deal with Sokka and Zuko anyway?"

"Just proving which of us is the bigger man," Sokka obliged, happy to provide the information when his taste buds were happy going between either spoon.

"As if all of us don't know already." Toph picked up the baby and with that one dreaded nickname shouted again and again Sokka's happy mood was shot straight back down to moody, while everyone else shot up to his former over how seriously he was taking the silly thing.

She'd been so upset before but when Sokka came to sit back down two spots away from Katara he couldn't help but notice that even she was stifling back laughter.

"Oh what's the big deal?" she asked. "She's just a baby."

"The big deal?" he repeated. "The big deal is that you get something cute like Kitty and I'm stuck with something that doesn't reflect who I am in the slightest bit. It's the principle, woman! The principle! You, _baby_, come here! I'm going to set you straight!"

Keiko was passed from person to person just like the bowls of rice until she reached Sokka where he stood her up before him and got down to her eye level with a serious stare.

"Sok - ka," he said to her very slowly. He pointed to his chest. "It's Sokka." But that wasn't enough for Sokka to just recite his name, he had to show what it meant and how all the things that made up his person made the name and not the other way around. Every description he backed up with a heroic pose.

"Brave, genius, master of haiku!" He made an amateur karate chop meant to be impressive.

"Resourceful and if not to too bold to say knows exactly how to make the ladies, ah," - he made a smooth sway of the hips and cool eyes to Suki and Ty Lee who giggled – "_melt_. _Yeah_, that's right. And all these fabulous traits can be known under one title…"

"I'm going to throw up," Mai remarked, dropping her head into a hand, and she looked quite close.

"Here's The Duke's helmet," said Toph, handing it over out of courtesy when she wanted to use it for the same thing.

"Sokka," Sokka said with a cool and mysterious edge, striking a bold pose as if no Avatar with any amount of amazing powers could compare. He held that pose for a couple seconds to let it sink in before he broke it completely by getting back to the baby with wide, hopeful eyes.

"Huh? Huh?" he prodded, jiggling at Keiko's shoulders for a response. "Is there anything you want to say you sweet, little girl? You adorable little thing with your cute little pigtails? Huh?"

Keiko clapped. "Bozo funny!"

Everyone cracked up at once but Sokka was immediately directed to a sputtering sound from across the circle: Zuko choking on a clump of rice.

"_Oooh_, look who thinks it's such a riot!" Sokka said, dragging on his syllables as he walked round the circle to meet him. Sokka knelt down beside Zuko as Mai sat to a side starting to get worried. "Well laugh it up, buddy!" He smacked Zuko's back hard enough to dislodge the rice clump but too hard so that Zuko's face came straight up into his hot bowl of rice.

"Well there you go," said Mai flatly while Sokka still was there. "You should be thrilled that you've finally found someone juvenile enough to think you're funny."

"Thank you, Mai," Sokka growled with as much dark sarcasm as he could, wanting to slug Zuko again for his girlfriend's remark when he couldn't do it to Mai herself. He sat back down to two adoring girls at either side but when he felt that everyone was still laughing at him with their eyes he could no longer enjoy the specially made food the way it was intended.

Sokka dumped the two bowls into one and slurped it listlessly like he had the same rice as everyone else.

"_You jerk!_" Suki and Ty Lee screamed in one voice, something that for once they could agree on.

* * *

After a couple hours had passed most of the group had tucked in for the night and it was some luxury after so many months camping in the woods that they each had their own separate room to bed down in every night. Sokka hadn't caught sight of anyone in quite some time and that was fine with him as he walked the halls and balconies of the Western Air Temple.

He'd had more than enough time to cool down and so he had but even so it was nice for a change to just have some simple silence again. He could just listen to the howl of the wind like he was back home again even if there was the absence of snow crushing beneath his feet.

"Hey Sokka,"

The teen looked up from his walk to see Aang up against the wall, perhaps enjoying the quiet like Sokka had, being accustomed to a quiet, isolated area of the mountains like Sokka was to the arctic.

"Can I join you?"

Sokka shrugged. "No one's stopping you."

"Not that I'm encouraging it or anything," Aang stared innocently enough, "but did that fight really go down the way you said it did? Did one of you win? I know most people would bet on Zuko but you're a great strategist and that should count for something."

"Nah, I think we about evened out but you know the sun was hot. Weakens me, strengthens him, he had an advantage."

Aang nodded along. "You know this whole name thing will straighten itself out when Keiko gets older?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"And you know that we're not going to rip on you forever about it either?"

"Yep," Sokka confirmed. He knew as much but it was still nice hearing it spoken aloud.

"Good, because I have a surprise for you," the airbender declared with growing excitement like he was gifting Sokka with an early birthday present. Sokka wasn't expecting much as his eyes drifted shut as they rounded the corner into Katara's room.

"Sokka!"

It wasn't Katara who had spoken though for she was still fast asleep in her bed. It was Keiko that Sokka had heard the moment he'd entered the room and his ears could scarcely believe it. How had Aang done it, how had he-!?

Once his eyes caught up to his ears Sokka saw how.

Keiko was in the midst of a new game crawling in and out of a mountain of freshly cleaned socks squealing the word in delight.

If at all possible Sokka's indignation of the whole situation dropped even lower, dragging his shoulders down with him.

"_That's_ for calling me a girl in a boy's body!" Aang shot back, his wish to get Sokka back for that fulfilled at last after Sokka had managed to hit the one devious bone in the little airbender's body with that insult days ago.

"Sokka! Sokka! Sokka!" Keiko said, crawling through the sock mountain as Sokka looked on with a long face.

"I'm going to bed," he said. There was only so much teasing a guy could take in one day.

After Sokka left the room Aang positively beamed down at the toddler still crawling around in the socks. He scooped her up and peeled a few socks from her head. "That's a _good_ baby," praised Aang and he shook her little hand in his when she couldn't understand the significance of a high five.

"You get to sleep with me tonight, Kei," Aang said to her as a reward as he left Katara's room and onto his own.

0000000000000000000

E.V.

Though I agree that Mai is a different character to fathom I believe she would go out of her usual range of non-involvement on a topic as important as establishing proper teamwork between her, Ty Lee and Katara if only not be to caught in any sort of additional disadvantage when they're at a huge one already with their small numbers and a betrayed and ever more dangerous Azula to deal with. Phrased so elegantly in Disney's Mulan, one grain of rice can tip the scale, this one small flaw of distrust between Katara, Mai, Suki and Ty Lee in the intensity and unpredictability of battle could prove to be the difference between victory and defeat and Mai realizes this.

Of course Mai would _only_ take such measures if _no one_ else was _ever_ going to volunteer and she had to force herself to be the responsible one.

Mai is more of a thinker than a feeler like Katara and I think she would look at the situation logically. It would be a small sacrifice to pay…and it's not like she phrased the conversation very nicely either.

Just my take on the matter. Still, I can see your point and will plan to edit this sometime so it fits better with me. : )

To understand how Keiko came into the storyline and other things you will have to read my previous installments of From Solo to Trio and Return to the Swamp. Ursa is indeed there at the Western Air Temple but she just didn't fit into this storyline.

Hope this clears up any confusion. Thanks for reading,

Arual-san


End file.
